I had such a nice weekend! Saturday was spent with family, enjoying a birthday party for my sister's dad. It was 104* that day here in LA, so that was a bit brutal, but it was so nice getting to hang out with family.
On Sunday, my friend HC invited me to head north of Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez Valley for a day of wine tasting! We set off first thing in the morning and stopped in a cute town called Solvang for lunch. Solvang was founded 101 years ago as a Danish town, and it has maintained strong ties to its original heritage. Right down the road from Solvang is a super cute, one-horse type of town called Los Olivos, which is where we stopped and had dinner. Between the two towns is a road with winery after winery. It was such a great day!
The cute Danish town of Solvang, California. Solvang is a 2.5 hour drive north of Los Angeles.
We were lucky to be visiting the town during the Danish Days Festival, so we got to see a lot of cool viking garb and decor.
There were booths where people were making fresh aebelskivers - a sort of Danish doughnut, served with raspberry sauce.
These guys were reenacting a Viking camp in the town square area in Solvang.
After our stop for lunch and perusing in Solvang, we made our way to the Buttonwood Winery, just a mile or so a way.
Next we went on to Rideau Vineywards, which had the most beautiful flowers! This was the only winery that wasn't air conditioned, though, which was not too comfortable in the extreme heat wave that hit California this weekend.
Our third stop was Lincourt Vineyards. This was the view from the main building - how stunning?
Our last stop was Blackjack Winery, which was featured in the movie Sideways! We asked why the vineyard was named as such, and we were told that the owner, Mr. Wisted, had invented the only legal form of Blackjack that can be played in the state of California.
After all of our wine tasting, we were famished! We asked for some recommendations on where to eat in town, and two separate people recommended Los Olivos Cafe - so that's where we ended up. We were not disappointed in the least! HC and I shared a couple of flatbreads and gushed over the restaurant's homemade olive oil. It is definitely a place I will venture back to on my next trip up - it was that good!
I couldn't believe this was my first time going wine tasting! I live in California, for goodness sake - wine tasting is so accessible in this state, and it's such a nice, leisurely day. Have you been before? If so, where?, and did you enjoy it? I'd love to hear any recommendations you may have!
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Where we went:
Buttonwood Winery
Rideau Vineyard
Lincourt Vineyards
Blackjack Ranch Vineyards & Winery
Los Olivos Wine Merchant Cafe
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Where we went:
Buttonwood Winery
Rideau Vineyard
Lincourt Vineyards
Blackjack Ranch Vineyards & Winery
Los Olivos Wine Merchant Cafe
10 comments :
Such a fun weekend! Loving the pictures! I NEED to go on a wine tasting, like, ASAP. :)
Sounds like a BLAST!!!
I want to go there and bitch about merlot all day. I hope you caught that reference. And ebelskivers are Danish pancakes! They be my fave.
This looks like so much fun! I'm gonna have to make that trip out there. Great pics! XO
Looks like so much fun! We have heard great things about that place!
Oh I miss Solvang and its desserts. ;)
Your weekend looks and sounds like a fantastic one Lacey! :)
And unfortunately, as much as I would love to go wine tasting I have never been. I suck. :( No one wants to go so I just keep dreaming or reading about it.
I've never gone wine tasting...probably because I've never liked wine. I really really need to get into wine. I love activities revolving around drinking and so many of them involve wine!
That looks like a blast! :D Those desserts look divine...glad you had a good time!
I have yet to do a wine tasting while here and I really want to! I've heard V. Sattui in Napa is a good one.
That looks like a blast! I love Autumn wine tastings, and that little town looks amazing.
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